Train Kills French Nuclear Protester

Published: November 8, 2004

A French antinuclear protester was killed Sunday in eastern France when his leg was severed by a train carrying radioactive waste to Germany, a police official said.

The incident was not far from where two other antinuclear protesters had chained themselves to the tracks near here, briefly delaying the train, rail officials said.

Paramedics quickly treated the protester after he was struck by the train near Avricourt, but he died en route to a nearby hospital, the police official said on condition of anonymity. The official said at least one other protester had been injured.

An early investigation indicated that the protester, Sebastien Briat, 21, from the nearby Meuse region, died from injuries sustained when he and other protesters were surprised by the train as they prepared to chain themselves to the rails, police officials said.

The train's driver braked suddenly but did not avoid hitting the protester, the officials said.

About 12 miles up the rails in Laneuveville-devant-Nancy, the police intervened to cut the chains that two protesters from the group Sortir du Nucl?re, or Out of Nuclear, had used to secure themselves to the tracks, said officials from the French railway authority, S.N.C.F.

The train was delayed for about two hours, before continuing its route to a rail terminal in Danneberg, Germany, from a reprocessing plant in western France. It was carrying 12 containers of nuclear waste destined for a storage site in Gorleben, Germany.

At least 4,500 people demonstrated Saturday at the radioactive waste way station in Gorleben, part of regular protests prompted by concerns about the safety of the nuclear material. Spent fuel from Germany's nuclear power plants is sent to France and Britain for reprocessing under contracts that oblige Germany to take back the waste.

Some previous shipments of radioactive waste to Gorleben have drawn thousands of protesters. The demonstrations have faded, however, since the German government embarked on a plan last year to phase out nuclear power and close its remaining 18 nuclear power plants by about 2020.